Un Bois Sepia

This is more conventional than most of the avant-garde Lutens line, but if you are scared of going outside smelling like Play-Doh (Ambre Sultan), a Thai curry (Santal De Mysore) or an apple pie (Bois De Vanille) then this might be the Lutens for you. It starts with a dramatic blast of chest-thumping woods, a la Bois de Portugal, with a shimmering burnt sugar note but, alas, dies down all too quickly into a much better behaved, demurely exquisite skinscent, quietly twisted and a little melancholy. This is a much more distinctive fragrance than many paint it. The soured milky boiled fruit accord sits rather uneasy with the woods and vetiver and this gives the juice a strange, sophisticated beauty. That trademark dissonance makes this very much a Lutens fragrance. Not to be dismissed or belittled, this one is very much worthy of your attention if you are looking for a different take on woods and vetiver. Try a sample first though - it's not for everyone. Update: been running around town, quite sweaty, and the wafts of Un Bois Sepia rising up are just the most sumptious thing I've smelled. This is officially gorgeous. Most refined fragrance I own. Let's see more love for Un Bois Sepia! A major Lutens IMHO.

Okay this is a minor Serge Lutens creation but it is still so beautiful and enjoyable. The perfume begins with bright notes of vetiver and cypress transitions to a middle consisting of opoponax and patchouli and dries down to a sandalwood and patchouli. Although it is not by any means very innovative, it is a gentle, beautifully blended and uplifting scent with moderate sillage and good longevity. A nice summer day scent. Enjoy!

Early 90’s-styled masculine fragrance. Lost in a cypress forest. Aromatic, green and slightly woody. Extremely smooth, one of the most undervalued SL fragrances, bottle worthy if you want that old-school masculine style but at a better quality.

This is an underappreciated scent. While it does smell a lot like a generic men's scent (from Polo to Sauvage), the ingredient quality sets it apart (at least the bell jar version I have). There's a bomb of cypress, which is mainly what gives it the big 1980s scent, but there is a lot of interesting stuff going on just below the surface. It's not my favorite bell jar scent but it's undervalued even by me.

Not bad, I guess, but first impression is that this smells like so many generic aftershaves. It is similar to Platinum Egoiste,I agree. I wouldn't dream of this and would never describe this as unisex. It screams "aftershave" to me. That having been said, if I smelt this on a guy, I'd be pretty happy ;-)